Dwan Regains Modest Lead in Durrrr Poker Challenge
BY: STEPHEN A. MURPHY | steve.murphy@cardplayer.com
PUBLISHED: Tuesday Mar 24, 2009 03:43 PM
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Antonius Had Briefly Captured the Overall Lead Earlier This Week
Tom Dwan and Patrik AntoniusIt may have taken a while to really get going, but it appears as if the Durrrr Challenge is starting to be played with a little more frequency.
Tom Dwan and Patrik Antonius have played three sessions — albeit not entirely lengthy ones — in the past five days, with Dwan grabbing an overall lead of just over $67,000 after Antonius briefly seized a small lead earlier in the week.
Still, the challenge is far from over, and $67,000 is hardly an insurmountable obstacle for Antonius. The two elite pros have played just 6,633 hands — or about 13 percent of the 50,000 hands they need to play to complete the challenge.
Players often buy into one of the four tables with somewhere between $40,000 and $60,000 at each table, so Dwan’s lead represents little more than a single buy-in.
After five weeks, the two pros have devoted just over 20 hours to the challenge.
Antonius has maintained from the outset that this challenge would likely be a long-term endeavor. He told Card Player in January that there would be weeks where the two players would probably not be able to play each other.
“Maybe sometimes we won’t play for a week,” said Antonius. “It might take a very long time.”
Still, with Antonius now back home from his travels, there is a strong possibility that he and Dwan will play more often now — as evidenced by the flurry of action this week.
When it was first announced, the Durrrr challenge generated an incredible amount of buzz and anticipation, perhaps to a level not seen since Andy Beal’s challenge against “The Corporation.” However, the initial excitement has seemed to wear off among the faithful as Dwan and Antonius have played sporadically since the challenge officially began on Feb. 18.
Both players have maintained that they would rather play the $500-$1,000 games online than play each other, so the recent action at this level has also slowed down the Challenge.
